Biodiesel has star appeal. Unfortunately the commodity is more closely aligned with Hollywood’s B-list actors than its big screen icons.
“Biodiesel has become somewhat of a Rodney Dangerfield in Canada – it doesn’t get any respect,” said Martin Reaney, one of the country’s leading alternative fuel experts.
He is perplexed why ethanol is hogging the spotlight while biodiesel toils away in relative anonymity in a canola-rich country.
“The Europeans went after biodiesel in a big way and we pursued ethanol,” said Reaney.
A case in point is the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, which has been expanded to include biodiesel but remains largely an ethanol group, he said.
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Reaney figures biodiesel is at least two full years behind ethanol on many fronts including policy development, commercialization and research and development.
He said that puzzles him because if the goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, public policy and commercial investment should be focused on biodiesel, not ethanol.
Canola is Canada’s highest yielding crop in terms of potential carbon dioxide reductions.
“The problem is we measure yield in kilograms per hectare. We should be measuring it in kilometres per hectare,” Reaney told delegates attending the Prairie Grain Development Committee plenary session.
If people changed the measure by which crops are judged, they would realize canola biodiesel delivers double the kilometres per hectare as wheat ethanol, said the chemist with the department of applied microbiology and food science at the University of Saskatchewan.
Biodiesel has more energy per litre than its counterpart, which is one-third water by weight. On top of that, it improves lubricity, which decreases engine wear and improves mileage. The Saskatoon biobus project has shown a one percent biodiesel blend enables a vehicle to go three percent farther down the road.
The final analysis is that biodiesel will deliver more environmental impact per subsidy dollar spent than ethanol.
And it is apparent the industry will need substantial subsidies to make a go of it, at least initially.
Reaney’s colleagues have crunched the numbers and at today’s canola and biodiesel prices even a 100 million litre plant, which would account for one-fifth of the proposed national mandate, would be unprofitable.
“You could not make money in Saskatchewan even with a very significant plant,” he said.
The only way to generate a profit would be selling into a heavily subsidized market like Europe or by receiving handsome blender’s tax credits at home, which is what biodiesel groups are hoping to see from the federal government in the spring budget.
But even if Ottawa delivers on those tax credits, they won’t be around forever. The industry needs to find a way to become self sufficient.
Reaney thinks he has the answer to that problem by combining biodiesel with viable co-products.
There are companies already doing that, making co-products like mustard biopesticide, protein concentrates and lubricity additives.
“Those scenarios are where people can make money. We have to encourage those sorts of things,” said Reaney.
